Pegasus saga: NCP fears foreign powers may be snooping on India
Darpan News Desk IANS, 10 Aug, 2021 11:39 AM
Mumbai, Aug 10 (IANS) Throwing a new dimension to the ongoing Pegasus spyware phone-tapping controversy, the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) expressed deep apprehensions that some 'foreign powers' may be snooping on the country, here on Tuesday.
Terming it as "a very serious matter", NCP National Spokesperson and Minorities Affairs Minister Nawab Malik in Maharashtra said that the Bharatiya Janata Party-ruled Centre must issue a proper clarification in Parliament.
"The Ministry of Defence (MoD) has said that it has nothing to do with the Pegasus matter. The Centre must make a proper statement in Parliament through some senior minister to the effect that the government has no links with the NSO Group Technologies," Malik urged.
He said that if the Centre's claim was indeed true, then it becomes even more serious as it could point to some foreign powers snooping on the country and its top institutions and individuals.
"The phones of several opposition leaders, Supreme Court judges, Election Commission of India, lawyers, journalists, industrialists have been tapped, but the MoD claims it has no links with Pegasus. Then who is responsible for this," Malik asked.
In view of this, the NCP leader said it was imperative for the Centre to immediately order a probe into the matter to reveal the truth, as the Congress demanded a statement by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the issue.
Malik's comments came a day after the Minister of State for Defence Ajay Bhatt informed the Rajya Sabha that the MoD has not had any transactions with the NSO Group Technologies of Israel, as Parliament deadlock continues with the opposition firm on a debate in the house.
Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh on Tuesday lashed out at SAD chief Sukhbir Singh Badal for blaming him for Amritsar grenade attack and said his allegations were “totally unwarranted and politically motivated”.
The Punjab Police had nabbed on November 1 Shabnamdeep Singh alias Maninder Lahoria, who "confessed" to the police that he was asked by his Pakistani handlers to target police posts and crowded places during festivals.
Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal was on Tuesday afternoon attacked by a middle-aged man with chilli powder when he stepped out of his office after a meeting at the Delhi Secretariat.
39-year-old Anissia Batra, who was married to Mayank Singhvi for two years, worked with a German airline. She allegedly jumped from the terrace of her house in Panchsheel Park in south Delhi on July 13.
A 38-year-old woman was stabbed allegedly by a known person outside her beauty parlour following a quarrel in K N Katju Marg area in Delhi's Rohini district, the police said Tuesday.
